Andrea Gronvall Movie Reviews & Previews

Critics » Andrea Gronvall

Andrea Gronvall

Agrees with the Tomatometer 73% of the time.

Biography:: Chicago Reader film critic.
Publications:: Chicago Reader , Time Out

Total Reviews:: 331

Listing Of All Reviews & Articles

Showing 51 - 100 of 331

Previous | Next

T-Meter	Title \| Year	Add Date
32%	I Am Number Four (2011)	" Producers Michael Bay and Steven Spielberg deploy an arsenal of noisy special effects to demonstrate the invaders' high-tech superiority, which makes Olyphant's inability to breach an Internet firewall look pretty silly." — Chicago Reader Posted Feb 17, 2011
30%	Sanctum (2011)	" After a sluggish half hour, this well-crafted adventure kicks into high gear and never lets up." — Chicago Reader Posted Feb 4, 2011
64%	Biutiful (2010)	" Javier Bardem cuts a tragic figure as a dying Barcelona lowlife who traffics in illegal immigrants and communes with the dead." — Chicago Reader Posted Jan 28, 2011
20%	The Rite (2011)	" Horror fans may be disappointed by this handsome exorcism drama, which aspires to the serious religious feeling of William Friedkin's The Exorcist but delivers little of its shock or gore." — Chicago Reader Posted Jan 27, 2011
22%	Country Strong (2011)	" Shana Feste's screenplay seldom rises above the level of daytime TV; the only actor who triumphs over her trite dialogue is Tim McGraw in a nonsinging role as Paltrow's husband and manager." — Chicago Reader Posted Jan 14, 2011
10%	Season of the Witch (2011)	" Cage alternates between leaden line readings and thunderous outbursts, making his accomplished costars Ulrich Thomsen and Stephen Campbell Moore look even better. But the movie's worst aspect is the CGI, which packs no scares whatsoever." — Chicago Reader Posted Jan 7, 2011
90%	Rare Exports: A Christmas Tale (2010)	" Santa shows his dark side in this wildly idiosyncratic horror flick from Finnish writer-director Jalmari Helander." — Chicago Reader Posted Jan 5, 2011
91%	Terribly Happy (Frygtelig lykkelig) (2010)	" Lurid and stylish, this 2008 Danish feature plays like a cross between The Postman Always Rings Twice and High Noon, with a dash of Gothic thriller." — Chicago Reader Posted Jan 5, 2011
100%	Last Train Home (2010)	" Chinese-Canadian director Lixin Fan considers the social upheavals wrought by China's economic miracle." — Chicago Reader Posted Jan 4, 2011
36%	Burlesque (2010)	" Even the dances feel cozily dated, as choreographers Denise Faye and Joey Pizzi borrow liberally from Bob Fosse." — Chicago Reader Posted Jan 4, 2011
28%	Takers (2010)	" Laughable subplots about Elba's addicted sister (Marianne Jean-Baptiste) and Dillon's crooked partner (Jay Hernandez) only slow the action, which is all this movie has going for it." — Chicago Reader Posted Jan 3, 2011
82%	Night Catches Us (2010)	" Tanya Hamilton directed her own script, and though her ending leaves loose ends dangling, the movie is refreshing for its seriousness and originality." — Chicago Reader Posted Jan 3, 2011
21%	Gulliver's Travels (2010)	" [Black] doesn't have much going for him besides pop-culture references and his own looming girth.." — Chicago Reader Posted Dec 23, 2010
23%	Resident Evil: Afterlife (2010)	" True to series form, plot is nearly indiscernible, but this fourth installment in the sci-fi/horror/action franchise created by writer-director Paul W.S. Anderson is the sleekest so far, thanks to 3D and star Milla Jovovich's body-hugging catsuit." — Chicago Reader Posted Dec 20, 2010
49%	The Chronicles of Narnia: The Voyage of the Dawn Treader (2010)	" The beguiling creature design -- from minotaur to dragon, sea serpent to one-footed dwarf -- and 3D effects heighten the illusion of a storybook coming alive." — Chicago Reader Posted Dec 9, 2010
79%	Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows - Part 1 (2010)	" The seventh and penultimate entry in the franchise jettisons the humor and fizz of the earlier movies for a much bleaker adult tone." — Chicago Reader Posted Nov 18, 2010
32%	For Colored Girls (2010)	" Perry benefits from the fire, heft, velocity, and lyricism of the language, but he also updates the material and makes it work onscreen, eliciting powerhouse performances from an ensemble of actresses." — Chicago Reader Posted Nov 4, 2010
54%	The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's Nest (2010)	" Since the heroine spends half her screen time recovering from brain surgery, Rapace has less to do than in the first two movies, but she's striking in full punk regalia during a tense courtroom sequence." — Chicago Reader Posted Oct 28, 2010
64%	Secretariat (2010)	" Diane Lane inhabits roles with the naturalness of someone who's spent nearly a lifetime in front of the camera, and she's the bedrock of this inspirational sports story." — Chicago Reader Posted Oct 7, 2010
28%	Life as We Know It (2010)	" Credulity is stretched throughout." — Chicago Reader Posted Oct 7, 2010
17%	You Again (2010)	" Betty White, playing yet another dirty old lady, hardly elevates the proceedings, in which otherwise reasonable women settle petty scores by flinging pea soup and chinaware." — Chicago Reader Posted Sep 23, 2010
86%	Buried (2010)	" As a cautionary tale about the perils of nation building, this is both creepy and provocative, but director Rodrigo Cortés blows it in the last few minutes with a rushed ending that feels like a cheat after all the escalating tension." — Chicago Reader Posted Sep 23, 2010
85%	Easy A (2010)	" Director Will Gluck shows wicked comic timing and uncommon warmth in an overworked genre. " — Chicago Reader Posted Sep 16, 2010
93%	The Tillman Story (2010)	" [An] uncompromising documentary." — Chicago Reader Posted Sep 2, 2010
52%	Going the Distance (2010)	" There's also some gallows humor about the record and newspaper industries, but overall this is a light, genial comedy about denial and self-defense." — Chicago Reader Posted Sep 2, 2010
76%	The Wildest Dream: Conquest of Everest (2010)	" In tandem with this bang-up adventure runs Mallory's fascinating life story." — Chicago Reader Posted Aug 27, 2010
55%	Mao's Last Dancer (2010)	" Ballet star Li Cunxin's best-selling autobiography gets a curiously tepid treatment in this 2009 adaptation by director Bruce Beresford." — Chicago Reader Posted Aug 27, 2010
90%	Lebanon (Levanon) (2010)	" Samuel Maoz drew from his own war experiences to write and direct this searing drama, which ranks alongside Platoon and No Man's Land as an antiwar statement and recalls the claustrophobic despair of Das Boot." — Chicago Reader Posted Aug 26, 2010
81%	Scott Pilgrim vs. the World (2010)	" Michael Cera elevates deadpan to an art, starring as a slacker turned action hero in this wildly inventive comedy." — Chicago Reader Posted Aug 12, 2010
37%	Eat Pray Love (2010)	" Only hard-core fans of Oprah's BFF will be able to stomach this navel-gazing tripe, which posits "me-first" consumerism as the road to happiness." — Chicago Reader Posted Aug 12, 2010
69%	The Girl Who Played with Fire (Flickan som lekte med elden) (2010)	" It's more textured than the first." — Chicago Reader Posted Jul 8, 2010
80%	Kings of the Evening (2010)	" An intrusive musical score and periodic fades to black, as for commercials, make this feel as if it were made for TV, but otherwise it's exceptional, from script and performances to production design." — Chicago Reader Posted Jun 25, 2010
86%	Le Donk & Scor-zay-zee (2009)	" The gags are either too inside, lazily paced, or simply not funny." — Chicago Reader Posted Jun 24, 2010
93%	Living in Emergency: Stories of Doctors Without Borders (2010)	" The good they accomplish is clearly dwarfed by the people's suffering, which keeps on going even after the war ends and the mission departs." — Chicago Reader Posted Jun 17, 2010
66%	The Karate Kid (2010)	" The plot takes forever to get rolling, and the movie is hamstrung by numerous tourism sequences (from the Forbidden City to the Great Wall) facilitated by the state-run China Film Group." — Chicago Reader Posted Jun 10, 2010
11%	Killers (2010)	" Bob DeRosa and Ted Griffin wrote the script, whose plummeting one-liners leave no actor unscathed." — Chicago Reader Posted Jun 7, 2010
——	Chun nyun hack (Beyond the Years) (2007)	" This is a pallid retread." — Chicago Reader Posted May 20, 2010
83%	Ddongpari (Breathless) (2009)	" Amid the violent outbursts are moments of warmth and tenderness, some featuring the protagonist's young nephew, the best hope for breaking the generational cycles of domestic tragedy." — Chicago Reader Posted May 13, 2010
44%	Just Wright (2010)	" Queen Latifah's warmth has boosted middling movies like "Beauty Shop" and "Last Holiday," but she and costar Common can't strike enough sparks to ignite this weak romantic comedy." — Chicago Reader Posted May 13, 2010
84%	The Good, the Bad, and the Weird (2010)	" With a nod and a wink to Sergio Leone, South Korean filmmaker Kim Jee-woon delivers a slam-bang western set in Manchuria after the Japanese invasion in 1931." — Chicago Reader Posted May 7, 2010
69%	Babies (2010)	" Imagine one long, stupefying montage of all the home videos you've ever had to watch of your friends' tiny offspring, edited without any narrative arc or discernible point of view, and you'll have the gist of this misbegotten documentary." — Chicago Reader Posted May 6, 2010
40%	Who Do You Love? (2010)	" It was muscled out of the marketplace by Cadillac Records, Sony's glossy, star-studded movie about Leonard. But it's clearly the better movie, earthier, wittier, and more intimate in its treatment of America's racial divide in the 1950s." — Chicago Reader Posted Apr 30, 2010
——	Beat the Drum (2007)	" Cinematographer Lance Gewer's wide-screen visuals are a knockout, and the impressive cast delivers." — Chicago Reader Posted Apr 7, 2010
26%	Why Did I Get Married Too (2010)	" Tyler Perry grounds this sequel to Why Did I Get Married? in his trademark blend of comedy, soap opera, and down-home southern sentiment, though he lets up a little on the moral proselytizing, which aids the digestion considerably." — Chicago Reader Posted Apr 2, 2010
61%	Head On (1999)	" Director Ana Kokkinos has an eye for local color but spends little time developing the supporting characters." — Chicago Reader Posted Apr 1, 2010
20%	The Last Song (2010)	" Years on the Hannah Montana TV series have not adequately prepared Miley Cyrus for screen acting, even in a vehicle as unchallenging as this adaptation of a Nicholas Sparks novel." — Chicago Reader Posted Apr 1, 2010
63%	Hot Tub Time Machine (2010)	" Director Steve Pink offsets the satire with moments of genuine warmth." — Chicago Reader Posted Mar 26, 2010
94%	45365 (2009)	" Directors Turner Ross and Bill Ross IV, brothers and native sons of Sidney, find poetry in images of the mundane." — Chicago Reader Posted Mar 25, 2010
13%	The Bounty Hunter (2010)	" Inexplicably, Butler continues to get work in romantic comedies despite his limited range and boorish persona." — Chicago Reader Posted Mar 18, 2010
13%	Our Family Wedding (2010)	" Vacuous and contrived." — Chicago Reader Posted Mar 11, 2010
28%	Remember Me (2010)	" Allen Coulter directed this morose and sluggish drama, which gets more mileage from Pattinson's anguished profile than from Will Fetters's thunderously overwritten screenplay." — Chicago Reader Posted Mar 11, 2010
74%	Unmade Beds (2009)	" Director Alexis Dos Santos stressed improvisation, and his scenes have a lingering emotional rawness, but the handheld camera work left me feeling as woozy as the characters appear to be." — Chicago Reader Posted Feb 25, 2010
97%	Ajami (2010)	" Shani and Copti (who costars as a hipster druggie) elicit moving performances from their nonprofessional actors, who ground the somewhat breathless action in a streetwise realism." — Chicago Reader Posted Feb 18, 2010
49%	Percy Jackson & the Olympians: The Lightning Thief (2010)	" The movie feels like a cut-rate Potter knockoff with a dash of Ray Harryhausen." — Chicago Reader Posted Feb 11, 2010
84%	Eyes Wide Open (Einaym Pkuhot) (2010)	" This directorial debut by Haim Tabakman is unadventurous, borrowing from the gay-cinema canon but adding nothing new." — Chicago Reader Posted Feb 2, 2010
82%	Defamation (2009)	" The filmmaker gives roughly equal time to left, right, and moderate views, but his glib narration, accentuated by a jaunty score, undercuts this otherwise worthy inquiry." — Chicago Reader Posted Feb 2, 2010
——	The Baby Formula (2008)	" The low-key leads get the movie off to a slow start and sap any momentum generated by the arrival of their dysfunctional in-laws." — Chicago Reader Posted Jan 29, 2010
16%	When in Rome (2010)	" Josh Duhamel plays the smitten sports reporter who helps Kristen Bell mount her big art show, "Pain"-a fitting title, given the agony induced by this godawful comedy." — Chicago Reader Posted Jan 29, 2010
27%	Extraordinary Measures (2010)	" It sometimes feels like one of those "disease of the week" TV movies from the 1970s." — Chicago Reader Posted Jan 25, 2010
79%	The Girl on the Train (La Fille du RER) (2010)	" Techine glosses over the story's most potent issue: France's complicated relationship with its Jewish community." — Chicago Reader Posted Jan 21, 2010
85%	A Single Man (2009)	" Ford's eye for period detail is exact; brief cutaways, incisive dialogue, and charged glances telegraph the cold-war paranoia and sexual alienation of the early 60s." — Chicago Reader Posted Jan 15, 2010
32%	The Lovely Bones (2009)	" Peter Jackson's adaptation of Alice Sebold's best-selling novel hovers just this side of Ghost Whisperer kitsch but remains compulsively watchable." — Chicago Reader Posted Jan 14, 2010
12%	The Spy Next Door (2010)	" The fight sequences (with obvious doubles) are anemic, and Chan's traditional outtakes over the closing credits wear pitifully thin." — Chicago Reader Posted Jan 14, 2010
87%	Amreeka (2009)	" Writer-director Cherien Dabis too easily resolves or dismisses the characters' problems, making way for an upbeat ending." — Chicago Reader Posted Dec 18, 2009
89%	Séraphine (2009)	" Provost and cowriter Marc Abdelnour explore the mutable boundaries between spirituality, naivete, genius, and madness, showing how the two outsiders and polar opposites cultivated a mutual understanding." — Chicago Reader Posted Dec 17, 2009
48%	Terra (Battle For Terra) (2009)	" This 3D computer animation is more otherworldly than most sci-fi films, and its environmentally conscious theme couldn't be more timely." — Chicago Reader Posted Dec 16, 2009
93%	Yoo-hoo, Mrs. Goldberg (2009)	" It is only in the sequence about Berg's popular costar Philip Loeb that Aviva Kempner's documentary resonates." — Chicago Reader Posted Dec 16, 2009
85%	Skin (2009)	" Provocative." — Chicago Reader Posted Dec 15, 2009
84%	The Princess and the Frog (2009)	" A welcome return to the Disney tradition of 2-D animation." — Chicago Reader Posted Dec 10, 2009
5%	Old Dogs (2009)	" A total train wreck." — Chicago Reader Posted Nov 25, 2009
36%	New York, I Love You (2009)	" The project is lush and seductive as a whole, though some segments are especially vibrant." — Chicago Reader Posted Oct 30, 2009
38%	Cirque du Freak: The Vampire's Assistant (2009)	" Mixing horror and comedy while minimizing the gore, writer-director Paul Weitz serves up a witty adventure fantasy with a tasty dollop of schadenfreude." — Chicago Reader Posted Oct 23, 2009
49%	Astro Boy (AstroBoy) (2009)	" Osamu Tezuka's groundbreaking 60s anime series gets a stylish CGI update in this sci-fi animation." — Chicago Reader Posted Oct 23, 2009
11%	Couples Retreat (2009)	" The various therapies -- talk, yoga, massage -- serve only to set up tired insult humor and smarmy sight gags." — Chicago Reader Posted Oct 8, 2009
25%	Fame (2009)	" The high school is so sanitized that there are no drugs, cutthroat competition, or-inconceivably for a theatrical milieu-no gay students." — Chicago Reader Posted Oct 2, 2009
47%	The Providence Effect (2009)	" This uplifting documentary breaks no new ground stylistically, but the story it tells is urgent and compelling." — Chicago Reader Posted Oct 2, 2009
78%	Anonyma - Eine Frau in Berlin (A Woman in Berlin) (2009)	" No one is guiltless-not the Russian commander (Yevgeny Sidikhin) who takes the heroine as his lover, nor her bourgeois landlady (Fassbinder alumnus Irm Hermann), who welcomes the occupiers for their black market goods." — Chicago Reader Posted Oct 2, 2009
81%	Unmistaken Child (2009)	" Films that address faith and love as eloquently as this moving 2008 documentary are rare." — Chicago Reader Posted Oct 2, 2009
34%	The Burning Plain (2009)	" The result is confusion, not catharsis." — Chicago Reader Posted Sep 25, 2009
48%	Taking Woodstock (2009)	" Ang Lee's 11th collaboration with producer James Schamus starts out strong and funny before getting mired in 60s nostalgia." — Chicago Reader Posted Aug 27, 2009
43%	Shorts: The Adventures of the Wishing Rock (2009)	" Magic vies with technology in this exuberant adventure comedy, which unfolds achronologically in a series of zany, effects-laden vignettes." — Chicago Reader Posted Aug 21, 2009
21%	Spread (2009)	" The film becomes unintentionally funny when he falls for another hustler (Margarita Levieva) with even less conscience, their grand passion leading to ludicrous behavior and soap-opera dialogue." — Chicago Reader Posted Aug 20, 2009
92%	Ponyo (2009)	" One of the anime master's weaker efforts." — Chicago Reader Posted Aug 20, 2009
45%	Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs (Ice Age 3) (2009)	" The manic pace quickly grows tiresome, as does the influx of cloying baby animals." — Chicago Reader Posted Aug 20, 2009
74%	Cold Souls (2009)	" A dark indie comedy that's distinguished by a sci-fi theme and surrealistic touches but ends without a payoff." — Chicago Reader Posted Aug 20, 2009
96%	Revanche (2009)	" Writer-director Gotz Spielmann (Antares) avoids the clutter and manipulation of most thrillers, escalating tension almost solely through the characters' turbulent emotions." — Chicago Reader Posted Aug 7, 2009
94%	The Cove (2009)	" Directed by Louie Psihoyos, this well-intentioned documentary exposes the harvesting of dolphins by Japanese fishermen, yet its theatrics suggest a cross between reality TV and Mission: Impossible." — Chicago Reader Posted Aug 7, 2009
20%	Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen (2009)	" The special effects are better and the dialogue slightly more humorous than in the first movie, but the anti-Arab subtext is repugnant." — Chicago Reader Posted Jun 25, 2009
43%	The Proposal (2009)	" [A] buoyant vehicle for Sandra Bullock and Ryan Reynolds, whose chemistry is a happy surprise." — Chicago Reader Posted Jun 19, 2009
92%	Etz Limon (Lemon Tree) (2009)	" The two Israelis who take her side are female, which underscores the film's message: a little less machismo might save a lot more than trees." — Chicago Reader Posted Jun 12, 2009
40%	Imagine That (2009)	" Director Karey Kirkpatrick mines laughter from human fallibility, aided by a strong supporting cast that includes Martin Sheen as the boss and Thomas Haden Church as an office rival." — Chicago Reader Posted Jun 12, 2009
91%	Maria Larssons eviga ögonblick (Everlasting Moments) (Maria Larsson's Everlasting Moment) (2009)	" Mischa Gavrjusjov keys the camera work to the characters' moods, inky blacks portending a thunderous alcoholic outburst, golden washes signaling the heroine's late blooming." — Chicago Reader Posted May 29, 2009
63%	Eldorado (2009)	" Avoids a formulaic ending, reflecting instead on the impermanence of human connections and the inescapable baggage of the self." — Chicago Reader Posted May 29, 2009
81%	Okuribito (Departures) (2009)	" Director Yojiro Takita uses the changing seasons to echo the characters' moods; the score by Joe Hisaishi (Spirited Away, Howl's Moving Castle) has a suitably majestic sweep." — Chicago Reader Posted May 29, 2009
98%	Up (2009)	" Writer-directors Pete Docter and Bob Peterson present hilarious insights into bird brains and canine psychology and treat thornier human emotions deftly." — Chicago Reader Posted May 28, 2009
43%	Night at the Museum 2: Battle of the Smithsonian (2009)	" Bloated with visual effects." — Chicago Reader Posted May 21, 2009
37%	Angels & Demons (2009)	" A movie that's more streamlined and action-packed than the original." — Chicago Reader Posted May 14, 2009
46%	Management (2009)	" This quirky indie romance is beguiling at first but later succumbs to artifice." — Chicago Reader Posted May 14, 2009
62%	Lymelife (2008)	" Thanks to a strong ensemble cast, it's poignant and funny." — Chicago Reader Posted May 1, 2009

Showing 51 - 100 of 331

Previous | Next

Sort by Rating:

Sort results by this critic's rating. This option is only available for critics with a rating system (4 star, letter grade, 1-10, etc.)
Sort by T-meter:

Sort results by the Tomatometer (percentage of critics recommending a certain movie)